Voltset - A Multimeter for Your Cellphone/Tablet

[yramgu]

I don't understand that need to connect everything to a smartphone, especially regarding test gear. It's completely impractical to use and might not work in a few years when the OSs have evolved and the apps are not upgraded/maintained anymore
In the meantime you can still find 30 year old standalone gear that work like a charm (granted the performances are outdated but still)

[rob77]

it's a dangerous piece of ..... . it might be usefull for hobbysts playing around with small voltages (isolated from mains), but it's just a piece of useless device for the serious hobbysts or professionals. yeah it's cool to have everything connected to  your smart phone, but useless otherwise
for cases where i could use it, i'd rather use my 15$ pocket DMM.
when i need data logging i connect my real DMM to my PC via USB and i have a reliable and accurate logging.

sorry guys, but that's just a crap with good marketing - like the big corporations these days... design a good-looking crap , do some good marketing... and... profit !

and regarding the fake CAT rating - remove it from the description or redesign the product... it might be even illegal.

[CanadianAvenger]

and regarding the fake CAT rating - remove it from the description or redesign the product... it might be even illegal.

Legal or not, it is a major liability if you claim it, but don't meet it. If someone is injured or killed while using the equipment due to a lack of meeting the stated standard, you're on the hook in a big way.

[Deepak]

While we have not been good at communicating our the technical features in depth, we actually have solved for the issues you mention. We have a dedicated switch for when you plug in the banana plug probes, that will disconnect the attached probes = no electricity transfered over.

I realize I'm probably beating a dead horse here - but egads, why?

Surely it's better to just have external probes than to go through the trouble of having attached probes and including a switch like this. What sort of switch is being used here? Is it from a reputable brand like Behlke? Or are you using a vacuum relay, and if so how are you able to fit a HV relay into this form factor?

[daveshah]

While we have not been good at communicating our the technical features in depth, we actually have solved for the issues you mention. We have a dedicated switch for when you plug in the banana plug probes, that will disconnect the attached probes = no electricity transfered over.

The concept of banana jacks activating a switch reminds me of - be careful 

[yramgu]

Spooky those were brought to market   

[M. András]

hmm a ptc fuse can witstand thousand Ampers currents required for the lowest cat rating? be sure to include safety googles and safety suit meant to be used on live power lines
atleast make the thing standalone if the dude want to connect it to a "smart" phone so be it include connectivity but be it isolated by an digital isolator chip or a damn opto isolator, analog devices makes some fast ones, silicon labs make fast multi channel ones too. there is a reason why a serious multimeter is made in those sizes, i have one cheapy still working multimeter it has no cat rating whatsoever but the shole thing can fit into my fluke 289 battery compartment, the pcb inside it is 5 times smaller than the casing of that cheapy, but still has isolation slots between the inputs

[fcb]

It looks like this project will get funded now (they are at 93% with 28 days to go)...

[miguelvp]

It looks like this project will get funded now (they are at 93% with 28 days to go)...

For some reason the movie "The Jerk" comes to mind when he has to refund everyone that purchased his invention to avoid a lawsuit.

I guess we will see in August if they really get CAT II and III classification as per their time table.
Best thing it can happen is that they don't pass, and have to tell their users that is only for low voltage circuits and stay away from mains.

But even 3.3V measured wrong might fry your phone but oh well "c'est la vie" as long as no one dies or gets injured it will be an expensive lesson learned. Hopefully the usb data is optocoupled.

[fcb]

While I'm not being negative about the "Voltset", I do feel that "Mike_VS" has not explained why the "Voltset" is safe - and from what I've seen there are some serious questions that need to be answered.  Sadly I doubt "Mike_VS" will come back and answer these questions.

What's quite amusing is the Bluetooth Module (with battery) that is also on their KS campaign - really messy solution.

On a brighter note, Mooshimeter ships in August...

[Mike_VS]

Hey guys,

A sceptic crowd here, and that is how it should be. It is definitely on our end to prove our solution, and we are doing everything we can to do so.

So we are still working on the prototype, which we stated. We are testing different chips and testing out different hardware. That is why we are yet to go into specifics in terms of the hardware.

I hear your concerns in regard to safety to you and your phone and CAT 3. Let me put it like this, it is not a question IF it will be safe or not. Voltset will be CAT 2 and CAT 3. We will design it to be. If it is not now, it will be, no matter the cost to us.

Fuses? yes, we have fuses. The reason we went with resetable fuses, is that you can get them to work with up to 600 volt. We have to test it out in regard to our solution, to make sure it works. If not, we incorporate another solution.  No matter the cost for us to get there.

Isolation? Yes, it has to be 100% safe to plug into your phone. No matter the cost for us to get there.

Keep in mind we are running a crowdfunding campaign for the idea and concept of a smartphone integrated multimeter. While a lot of other campaigns have the full design ready, and just use crowdfunding as a shop to market and launch their fully working product, we put our project out there, while we are still working on the solution, to get feedback for the design and make sure we make it right. We are not a company that has tons of resources to make everything right on the get go. We are starting from scratch, bootstrapping, working day and night to get this thing out there.

of course we cannot compete with Fluke, and we are not trying to either. We are trying to create a community around a new way of doing things, and we do not try to claim that our thing is better than a fluke, or a replacement for a 10 dollar meter. We see the main value being in the design and software of voltset, enabling a collaborative platform to work with your measurements.

We are still have quite a few things to test out and work with before we can put the specifications out for you to judge and compare, but hardware takes time, especially when bootstrapping.

[M. András]

littlefuse have surfacemount fuses with holders so you can replace them, you have look it up as i dont recall the series name that would be way better option then a ptc fuse as it will arc over, even the small smd fuse will for the cat 3 test, and i bet there is no place to put in a hrc fuse for it

[CanadianAvenger]

littlefuse have surfacemount fuses with holders so you can replace them, you have look it up as i dont recall the series name that would be way better option then a ptc fuse as it will arc over, even the small smd fuse will for the cat 3 test, and i bet there is no place to put in a hrc fuse for it

Nano/Omni-Blok [154 series] -- I use them all the time!

[junkie_business]

If it is not now, it will be, no matter the cost to us.

...No matter the cost for us to get there...

...No matter the cost for us to get there...

Sorry, but if you're using Kickstarter, I don't see how you can afford to say that.

[Mike_VS]

What I mean by that, is that while we plan and budget accordingly, if worst comes to worst, we will do anything we can to fulfill our obligation. Worst case, we have to borrow money to cover unexpected costs, and work it off over time.

[fubar.gr]

Any news on the project?